Whether you’re an avid supporter of local clothing and furniture brands, just starting out on your sustainability journey, or want a more intimate experience of Mercedes-Benz’s growing lineup of electric cars, Green-House is once again promising to thoroughly entertain you this weekend.
Described as Singapore’s “first immersive retail festival”, with the goal of “[stimulating] conversations on sustainability”, the event’s 2024 iteration was the third and most expansive one thus far.
Indeed, unlike last year’s event which took place at the Castlery store in Liat Towers, Green-House 2024 was held in the old Nan Chiau High School. The location, now known as “New Bahru”, has an area of over 18,000 square feet. This allowed the organisers to showcase a more diverse lineup of participating vendors compared to last year.
Alongside core brands such as Mercedes-Benz and Castlery were a number of large names joining the festival for the first time. Said names included Nespresso, Helinox (an outdoor furniture maker), and Samsonite.
The latter collaborated with local textile artist Natalia Tan to create a tapestry installation made from the inner fabric lining extracted from “reclaimed luggages”.
ORGANISED BY ZONES
This year’s festival is divided into three immersive concepts: Renew, Reimagine, and Reconnect.
The Renew zone, housed in “The Factory”, lets visitors check out vintage furniture and decoration pieces, along with second-hand fashion stores. Kintsugi, recycle, repair and mending workshops are found here, too.
Meanwhile, the Reimagine zone in “The School Hall” centred on the theme of a “bold new world”. It featured vendors offering innovative sustainable, food and lifestyle products, as well as wellness and mindfulness workshops. Finally, the Reconnect zone and its camping theme invited visitors to be at one with nature.
One of Green-House 2024’s must-see installations was “Circling Zero”. Commissioned by Mercedes-Benz Singapore and Knock Knock Studio, it continued the theme of “art as furniture” from the “Reincarnation” exhibit from Green-House 2023.
Used car parts such as a catalytic converter, tail-lights, and spark plugs were repurposed into feature furniture pieces. The item that stood out the most, however, was a standing floor lamp fashioned from old brake rotors, which is supposedly inspired by multi-storey carparks.
More upcycled Mercedes-Benz car components were displayed in the Reimagine zone, adorning the school hall stage. Above the stage was the Mercedes-Benz Kantine, a pop-up cafe in collaboration with FURA and its chef, Christina Rasmussen.
The cafe supposedly explores the future of food with a three-course meal featuring local fare and a special non-alcoholic beverage pairing menu. All food and drinks were served on handcrafted crockery made from upcycled bio-composite materials.
Seating was capped at 60 diners per day, and the capacity was reached even before the event began on Saturday, 13 July 2024.
HEADING OUTDOORS
Between the two zones was the outdoor Reconnect zone. Here, Mercedes-Benz collaborated with Helinox to create a nature-themed “campground” featuring sustainable outdoor furniture. It also featured the EQE and EQB SUVs.
A pet photoshoot contest, which ran through the weekend, gave participants the chance to win one of 25 exclusive Mercedes-Benz x Helinox camping sets.
As with before, Green-House would not be complete without presenting the special chance to get behind the wheel of Mercedes-Benz’s EV range today. This year, the carmaker brought a broader and refreshed range of electric models for keen drivers to try out.
The EQE SUV joined the electric family in November last year, while the facelifted EQA and seven-seater EQB SUVs landed even more recently – in April this year – packing efficiency, equipment and styling upgrades.
Mercedes-Benz’s support of Green-House 2024 followed its recently-concluded cross-island EV driving event, and comes as it continues to reinforce its green push in Singapore.
If you haven’t managed to head down yet, fret not. Green-House 2024 will still be open to visitors tomorrow (14 July 2024), at New Bahru (46 and 58 Kim Yam Road), from 10:00am to 7:00pm. Admission for visitors is free, while the full participating list of merchants can be found here.
This story was first published in Sgcarmart.
